The Week

Campus tree-sitter Zachary Running Wolf makes an unsuccesful plea to UC Regents—by means of the cell phone Doug Buckwald is holding—urging them not to approve a high tech gym that will require decimation of the grove along Memorial Stadium’s western wall. Photograph by Richard Brenneman.
Campus tree-sitter Zachary Running Wolf makes an unsuccesful plea to UC Regents—by means of the cell phone Doug Buckwald is holding—urging them not to approve a high tech gym that will require decimation of the grove along Memorial Stadium’s western wall. Photograph by Richard Brenneman.
 

News

UC Regents Approve Controversial Projects

By Richard Brenneman
Friday December 08, 2006

Tree-sitting protesters, impassioned comments by neighbors and environmental activists, a poem, a bit of guerilla theater and the allotted 90 seconds of reasoned argument from Berkeley’s chief planner failed to sway UC Regents Tuesday. -more-


Council Passes New Landmarks Ordinance

By Judith Scherr
Friday December 08, 2006

The Berkeley City Council approved (6-3) Tuesday night an ordinance preservationists say will make landmarking historic sites and structures more difficult and ease the way for developers to demolish older buildings. -more-


Oakland’s Condo Conversion Bill Comes To Quick End

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday December 08, 2006

In a dramatic and rapid end to one of Oakland’s more swiftly rising development controversies, Oakland 6th District Council-member Desley Brooks withdrew her proposal to rewrite Oakland’s condominium conversion law shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, sending the issue to the same “blue-ribbon” citizens’ panel that has been charged with studying the city’s proposed inclusionary zoning law. -more-


Hills Opposition Doomed Measure J

By Rob Wrenn, Spcial to the Planet
Friday December 08, 2006

Voters in the hills and more affluent neighborhoods of Berkeley provided the strongest opposition to Measure J, the landmarks preservation measure on November’s ballot, assuring its defeat. -more-


Corbeil Named New Library Director

By Judith Scherr
Friday December 08, 2006

Donna Corbeil, Solano County Library deputy director, was named Berkeley’s new library director Wednesday night. -more-


Rosie Lee Tomkins (Effie Mae Howard), 1936-2006

By Eli Leon, Special to the Planet
Friday December 08, 2006

African-American quiltmaker Effie Mae Howard who, under the name of Rosie Lee Tompkins, produced astonishing works of patchwork art, died at the age of 70, Thursday or Friday, of unknown causes. New York Times art critic Roberta Smith wrote that Tompkins’s textile art works “demolish the category.” -more-


Committee Looks at People’s Park’s Future

By Judith Scherr
Friday December 08, 2006

“The university has no plans to bulldoze the berms or anything else at People’s Park,” said People’s Park Advisory Committee Chair John Selawsky, reading from a UC Berkeley memo to the 35 or so park supporters crowded into the advisory committee meeting at Trinity United Methodist Church Monday evening. -more-


Police Blotter

Berkeley Woman Stabbed
Friday December 08, 2006

Berkeley Woman Stabbed While Confronting Burglar -more-


UC Berkeley Readies for Durant Hall Renovation

By Richard Brenneman
Friday December 08, 2006

UC Berkeley’s latest building project isn’t a new structure but renovations to an old one—Campbell Hall, now called Durant Hall—recognized as a landmark by city and state and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. -more-


Council to Look at Commission Term Limits

By Judith Scherr
Friday December 08, 2006

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli said he wants to pass around Berkeley commission posts more equitably, which is why he has written an ordinance that will come before the City Council on Tuesday and that would limit a person’s service to eight years on a particular commission during any 10-year period and limit one person’s service to one commission. -more-


New BUSD Board Tackles District Healthy Food Program

By Sindya N. Bhanoo, Special to the Planet
Friday December 08, 2006

With two recently reelected board members and a new one, Wednesday’s meeting of the school board was both festive and deliberative as it swore in the winners and voted unanimously to elect Joaquin Rivera as president and John Selawsky as vice president of the board. -more-


First Person: KALX’s ‘The Sunday Morning Show’ Will Be Missed

By Jonathan Wafer
Friday December 08, 2006

I'm bummed. “The Sunday Morning Show” on UC Berkeley's radio station, KALX (90.7 FM), has been canceled. On Sept. 10 General Manager Sandra Wasson and management decided to pull the plug on the 20-something-year-old show for what they call a lack of direction. -more-


DAPAC Discussion Highlights Tensions Over Downtown

By Richard Brenneman
Friday December 08, 2006

Tensions within the panel helping to draft the new downtown plan emerged more clearly Tuesday night during a fast-paced meeting. -more-


Swanson Bill Seeks to Return Some Local Control to OUSD

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday December 08, 2006

16th District Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland) quickly delivered on a promise made several times during the months since he won the June Democratic primary, introducing a bill on his first day as a state legislator to immediately return some measure of local control to the Oakland Unified School District. -more-


Richmond’s Activist Librarian Honored By Colleagues

By Richard Brenneman
Friday December 08, 2006

Tarnel Abbott isn’t just a staunch defender of free speech: she’s also a dedicated practitioner. -more-


Flash: Council Approves First Reading of LPO Revision

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday December 05, 2006

The Berkeley City Council, in a 6-3 vote, approved the first reading of an ordinance Tuesday which preservationists contend will make landmarking historical sites and structures more difficult and will make it easier for developers to demolish older buildings. -more-


Protesters Take to the Trees to Save Threatened Live Oaks

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 05, 2006

In the wee, dark hours of Big Game, a Wolf made like a Butterfly and took to the trees. -more-


ABAG: Berkeley Must Double New Housing

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 05, 2006

The presence of BART and the invisible hand of UC Berkeley have prompted a powerful but little-known regional government to demand that Berkeley more than double the number of new housing units built in the city. -more-


UC Berkeley’s Billion Dollar Building Boom Surges Ahead

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 05, 2006

UC Berkeley’s building boom is surging forward as the university launches a search for architects for its newest projects—a $42.4 million, seven-level lab and office building and the restoration of Hearst Mining Circle. -more-


Brown Withdraws Nomination That Drew Fire

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday December 05, 2006

A controversial nomination of a conservative African-American Republican to the Oakland Planning Commission by outgoing Mayor Jerry Brown has been withdrawn under pressure from progressive community activists and Councilmember Jane Brunner. -more-


Revised Landmark Ordinance Back Before Council

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday December 05, 2006

The City Council will consider a revised Landmarks Preservation Ordinance at its meeting tonight (Tuesday), likely kicking off a fight to repeal the law before it takes effect. -more-


DAPAC, Landmarks Commissions Meet

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 05, 2006

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) and the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) are both meeting this week. -more-


UC Regents Set to Vote on Massive Southeast Campus Development

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 05, 2006

The University of California Regents are scheduled to meet this afternoon (Tuesday) to approve the controversial document that will pave the way for massive development in the southeast campus. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: More Attacks on Citizen Participation Rumored

By Becky O’Malley
Friday December 08, 2006

Back in the olden days when I was a kid, we traveled a lot by streetcar, and sometimes by train. One interesting feature of rail travel is that long before you can see your streetcar or train coming, you can tell that it’s getting near by leaning over and putting your ear next to the rails (which was a lot easier when I was closer to the ground). This phenomenon came to mind last week as I heard rumbles about new moves in the City Council’s agenda committee to limit the power of citizen-based commissions. I’ll leave the exact details to the news reporters to document when they actually come into view, but the rumblings from the rails threw up two possible strategies: further term-limiting commissioners and limiting individuals to service on one commission at a time. -more-


Council to Look at Telegraph, BIDs, Nanoparticles

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday December 05, 2006

When Cody’s on Telegraph announced its closure about six months ago, the City Council stepped in to upgrade the area by restoring police and social services. But the funding’s about to run out and the council will consider extending it tonight (Tuesday). -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday December 08, 2006

TRAFFIC COURT MOVE -more-


Commentary: Berkeley’s Charm At Risk

By Fred Dodsworth
Friday December 08, 2006

Thank you for the excellent Dec. 5 article regarding the push to increase housing in the downtown Berkeley corridor. I especially liked that you paired ABAG’s demands with UC’s building boom on the front page. -more-


Commentary: Breathable Air Is a Human Right, Too

By Rita Maran
Friday December 08, 2006

Human Rights Day comes but once a year, on Dec. 10. It’s the same date in every country around the world no matter what the local religion or culture or nationality. On that date, people around the globe—not just here in the Bay Area—commemorate the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Back in 1948, people first got to hear this quietly revolutionary declaration by the United Nations, that had the full support of the United States. All the governments that were and are part of the UN agreed that every human being’s rights are automatically entitled to protection, thanks to the brand-new operating principle called “human rights.” -more-


Commentary: Better Places for TJ’s in Downtown Berkeley

By Stephen Wollmer
Friday December 08, 2006

On Thursday Dec. 14 Hudson McDonald’s Trader Joe’s project at 1885 University Ave. will come before the Zoning Adjustments Board for use permits. So far, the public controversy swirling about this project has missed the real issue: Hudson McDonald’s use of Trader Joe’s popularity as a wedge issue to extort “extra-legal” zoning concessions from our city. -more-


Commentary: Conflict of Interest, Cronyism, Secrecy and Profit Motive

By Peter Warfield and Gene Bernardi
Friday December 08, 2006

A triple dose of conflict of interest, secrecy, and outsourcing of most of the library director selection process to a private search firm, Dubberly Garcia Associates (DGA), and to an advisory committee of outside library directors, raises very serious questions. -more-


Commentary: Gibson’s ‘Apocalypto’ Far From a Tribute to the Maya

By Gabriela Erandi Rico
Friday December 08, 2006

During the past week or so, tickets were distributed to UC Berkeley’s students in order to attract Mexican-Americans to view Mel Gibson’s new film, Apocalypto. When I first heard about the film, I was struck by Gibson’s investment in a project “reviving” an ancient Mesoamerican civilization not only because as a Mexican Indian (P’urhepecha/matlatzinca), I have great respect for the Maya but also because I’ve been fortunate to visit Catemaco, the wondrous place where the film was shot and was thus interested in how the site was used to capture the plot of the film. Curiosity got the best of me although I was a bit apprehensive about Gibson’s ability to accurately portray a Native American society or to present Native people in a positive light. I was right. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday December 05, 2006

TRADER JOE’S -more-


Commentary:The Full Story on Derby Field Discussions

By Mark Coplan
Tuesday December 05, 2006

It is my opinion that one of the most effective ways to get the word out in Berkeley is through the letters section of our local papers. I know that it’s the first place I look after I’ve read the front page, so I am asking for your assistance in getting the word out for this important event. This is a citywide issue, and we encourage everyone’s participation. -more-


Commentary: Urban Realities Ever Present on Oakland-Berkeley Border

By Christopher Cherney
Tuesday December 05, 2006

For the past nine years, my wife and I have lived in Berkeley, on the border of Oakland. We are grateful for the many advantages that come with living in Berkeley. But it is hard to forget, even for a day, that we are living hard up against the sad realities of urban America. -more-


Commentary: Parking Tickets: A Hidden Agenda?

By Steve Tabor
Tuesday December 05, 2006

In the Nov. 28 issue Rob Browning gets yet another chance to explain his behavior during his Oct. 31 parking ticket incident. Mr. Browning’s arrest appears in a different light after Judith Scherr’s report on the City of Berkeley budget in the Nov. 17 issue. Scherr’s report shows an unexpected $500,000 increase in parking ticket fines for 2006, one of only three revenue items on the way up. No figures were given for total fines collected, but if a $500,000 increase is thought to be significant, total fines for the year must be in the millions. My opinion of the Browning incident has now done a 180-degree turn. It seems not all the facts about the incident have come to light. -more-


Columns

Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Madness and Insanity: Deciphering Words in the Desert

By Conn Hallinan
Friday December 08, 2006

Somewhere between 465 and 406 BC, the Greek tragic poet and playwright Euripides coined a phrase which still captures the particular toxic combination of hubris and illusion that seizes many of those in power: “Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad.” -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Brown Leaves Oakland With Legacy of Improper Planning

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylo
Friday December 08, 2006

Folks generally think about city planning in the same way that we think about central plumbing. It’s noticed only when it fails, and even then our attention is mostly on how to clean up the resultant mess, not on fixing the internal structures that originally caused the problem. -more-


About the House: Taking Action With Photovoltaic Solar Power

By Matt Cantor
Friday December 08, 2006

The death toll in Iraq this last month was the highest so far in a war that shows no end in sight. There is little doubt that the oil in the region has played a significant role in our willingness to participate in a “War on Terror” some sources now believe has resulted in nearly 700,000 deaths in Iraq, not to mention an outright civil war. -more-


Garden Variety: Mrs. Dalloway’s is Not Just A Garden Bookstore

By Ron Sullivan
Friday December 08, 2006

I can’t resist Mrs. Dalloway’s—well, I can rarely resist any bookstore, though lately I know I’m guaranteed a headache when I venture into one without my reading specs. Since I rarely remember to carry those around with me and so end up craning and squinting my way through the shelves, browsing bookstores has become a bit of an S&M exercise. No matter. Mrs. D’s pulls me in just by the lovely (and amazingly persistent) vegetal scent of its woven-grass carpet. So I’m already biased in the place’s favor; let me get that disclaimer out right here at the start. -more-


You Write the Daily Planet

Friday December 08, 2006

It’s time to submit your essays, poems, stories and photographs for the Planet’s annual holiday reader contribution issue, which will be published on Dec. 29. Send your submissions, up to 1,000 words, to holiday@berkeleydailyplanet.com. Deadline is 5 p.m. on Dec. 20. -more-


Quake Tip: The Valves Are Coming! The Valves Are Coming!

By Larry Guillot
Friday December 08, 2006

You may have noticed that Contra Costa County has passed an ordinance requiring houses that are being sold to have an automatic gas shut-off valve. This will apply to all areas that are unincorporated, which means a lot of homes. -more-


Barn Owls: House Hunting in Berkeley

By Penny Bartlett, Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 05, 2006

Editor’s note: The following article was submitted to Joe Eaton in response to his call for readers’ stories about barn owls. His column will return the Tuesday after next. -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Friday December 08, 2006

FRIDAY, DEC. 8 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Friday December 08, 2006

BAY AREA FLUTE FEST COMES TO OAKLAND -more-


Moving Pictures: PFA Screens Two Italian Art House Classics

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday December 08, 2006

A fascinating pair of Italian films will screen this weekend at Pacific Film Archive. The first, Il Posto (1961), could be seen as a sequel to Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, presenting another quietly observant portrait of a young man suffering through a rite of passage. It’s as though the 13-year-old Antoine Donel of the earlier film has now grown into the 18-year-old Domenico Cantoni, sent by his parents into the big city of Milan to find a job. -more-


The Theater: Ten Red Hen Takes on ‘365 Plays’ Project

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday December 08, 2006

“We wanted to do these plays in people’s homes. My mentor called theater-making in this day and age ‘cultural migrant labor’—that is, you load your stuff into your car and go to where you do it.” -more-


About the House: Taking Action With Photovoltaic Solar Power

By Matt Cantor
Friday December 08, 2006

The death toll in Iraq this last month was the highest so far in a war that shows no end in sight. There is little doubt that the oil in the region has played a significant role in our willingness to participate in a “War on Terror” some sources now believe has resulted in nearly 700,000 deaths in Iraq, not to mention an outright civil war. -more-


Garden Variety: Mrs. Dalloway’s is Not Just A Garden Bookstore

By Ron Sullivan
Friday December 08, 2006

I can’t resist Mrs. Dalloway’s—well, I can rarely resist any bookstore, though lately I know I’m guaranteed a headache when I venture into one without my reading specs. Since I rarely remember to carry those around with me and so end up craning and squinting my way through the shelves, browsing bookstores has become a bit of an S&M exercise. No matter. Mrs. D’s pulls me in just by the lovely (and amazingly persistent) vegetal scent of its woven-grass carpet. So I’m already biased in the place’s favor; let me get that disclaimer out right here at the start. -more-


You Write the Daily Planet

Friday December 08, 2006

It’s time to submit your essays, poems, stories and photographs for the Planet’s annual holiday reader contribution issue, which will be published on Dec. 29. Send your submissions, up to 1,000 words, to holiday@berkeleydailyplanet.com. Deadline is 5 p.m. on Dec. 20. -more-


Quake Tip: The Valves Are Coming! The Valves Are Coming!

By Larry Guillot
Friday December 08, 2006

You may have noticed that Contra Costa County has passed an ordinance requiring houses that are being sold to have an automatic gas shut-off valve. This will apply to all areas that are unincorporated, which means a lot of homes. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday December 08, 2006

FRIDAY, DEC. 8 -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday December 05, 2006

TUESDAY, DEC. 5 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Tuesday December 05, 2006

THE POLITICS OF WATER -more-


Wallace Berman and His Circle at BAM

By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 05, 2006

Wallace Berman was perhaps the last true Bohemian—a denizen of the Beat counterculture, which was Bohemia’s successor. Berman constructed his life and art outside the establishment, and he and his coterie of many friends were in search of an art that confirmed their nonconformist lifestyle. Berman was a man of many talents: poet, draftsman, sculptor and, as we see throughout the exhibition, a fine, rather conventional portrait photographer. -more-


Revels Mark Holiday Season

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 05, 2006

Once again, California Revels celebrates the Winter Solstice holidays with the 21st Christmas Revels: music and song, Morris and step dance, pomp and proclamations, choruses and soloists—as well as the popular participatory sing-along and the line-dance that runs through the entire audience, now a tradition—amid a sumptuous spectacle of holiday customs from other times, other places, all to unfold over the next two weekends at the Oakland Scottish Rite Theater, by Lake Merritt. -more-


Other Minds Festival Begins This Weekend

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 05, 2006

The Other Minds Festival of New Music, now in its 12th year, presents concerts featuring the work of composers and improvisors from Norway, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, France—and Emeryville— this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with composer panel discussions at 7 p.m., and on Sunday at 2 p.m. (panel at 1 p.m.) in Kanbar Hall at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. Tickets are $30 ($20 students) with three show packages at $72, through otherminds.org, (415) 292-1233, or at the SFJCC box office. -more-


Barn Owls: House Hunting in Berkeley

By Penny Bartlett, Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 05, 2006

Editor’s note: The following article was submitted to Joe Eaton in response to his call for readers’ stories about barn owls. His column will return the Tuesday after next. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday December 05, 2006

TUESDAY, DEC. 5 -more-